I am proud to have survived several of these challenging but agreeable rides. Call me old-fashioned but those that I’ve enjoyed most have been the ones where I’ve set out in a defined group and we’ve ridden the whole ride together. Accordingly, if required, I will volunteer to lead a group at slower Saturday club run pace on the 42 mile route, ie omitting the hell of the Bollington Loop (think Beeston Brow and be afraid, be very afraid).

For those of us who can't make the Sunday circuit of the edge, I will be riding the short version on sat morning. I will be at the Fermain at 9.30 should anybody wish to join me. I will leave at 9.35. Would have loved to do Sunday, but unfortunately am away. It's a great ride and one that I like to do to pay homage to Barry as he was a great help when I first joined the club. It's a bit tough too! Chapeau Barry.

What's the plan with the intermediate group this year? The one that leaves a few mins after the racers. It would be good if we could all stick together. I seem to remember it being rather, shall we say fractured last year.

Mick was talking about this last week and proposing to run a Sunday training ride group, leaving after the "racers" and sticking together. Seem to recall that last year everyone left together with predictable results

Of course it's nothing to do with me as I shall be heading in the opposite direction back down Beech Lane towards Macc on the shorter route, but may I suggest that those wishing to ride in either of the two faster groups (Masters of the Universe race pace and Sunday morning training ride pace) wait for each other to cross the road and start at the Shell garage? When I've ridden the full circuit, the very Tytherington traffic lights at which we are assembling have invariably fractured the second of these groups right from the start. Of course anyone is free to ride the route by themselves if they want to, but, hey, it's good to ride together, isn't it?

I'm really looking forward to the ride. It took me several years to appreciate the route's unusual design, and I'm grateful to Barry Hyde for creating it. A particular highlight each year for me is counting the disconsolate single riders that have been spat out by the Masters of the Universe at various stages of the route, looking like they don't know what's hit them; but 'chapeau' for trying guys (it's a boy thing), which is more than I will ever do.

Because greyskull forsook investing me with any of his powers (how I love a literary allusion at my level) and in an attempt to avoid being reduced to a fleshless faced skeletor, I will join the group setting of at 9:35 group tomorrow. Mission statement:The full 50 milesNot try to keep up with the M.O.T.U.Wait at top of Beeston Brow/Nab quarry to consolidate the group.Reconstitute at each summit.What is there not to like?

and remember the old Chinese proverbs "the slower you go the quicker they catch up" & " if I can't keep up with the fast boys I mustn't destroy the slower boys ride"

On my way to work this morning, as I meandered along School Lane for the umpteenth time in two days, I reflected on yesterday’s highly enjoyable ride, when I swapped my usual Sunday C of E for a sunny C of the E. How good it was to ride these lanes! How our jaws dropped when the Masters of the Universe overtook us as early as the top of Woodbrook Road! How smug I was that I had cracked the security code protecting Mrs C’s secret stash of Clif Bars (oatmeal, raisin and walnut)! How agreeable were my dear companions! These were, for all or part of the route, Huw, Dave Higham, Cath, Andrew Ford, Cameron, Annick, Eddie, Paul F, Karen Bale, Gareth Lewis and Moray.

What a brilliant sport this is where at least three of the above were four times the age of the youngest! No answers on a postcard please – discretion is my middle name and wild horses would not drag these identities from the database in my cerebral cortex, but it’s no secret that Cameron was the youngest. Well done Cameron, shame that an imminent maths tutorial forced your early retirement. Personally I would prefer another full C of the E to an hour battling with quadratic equations, but then I failed Maths O-Level (twice). I never did see the point of decimals. To plagiarise my old friend the late Eddie George - there are three types of cyclists: those who can add up and those who can't.